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Soldier who refused combat fighting discharge

Savannah Morning News

Kevin Benderman, a former soldier with the 3rd Infantry Division, is back in Hinesville with his wife, Monica, after spending 13 months in prison at Fort Lewis, Wash. for refusing to deploy to Iraq with his unit in 2005.

Savannah Morning News

Kevin Benderman, a former soldier with the 3rd Infantry Division, is back in Hinesville with his wife, Monica, after spending 13 months in prison at Fort Lewis, Wash. for refusing to deploy to Iraq with his unit in 2005.

HINESVILLE - A Fort Stewart soldier who served 13 months in an Army prison for refusing to deploy to Iraq has returned to this military community and will fight his pending dishonorable discharge.

Kevin Benderman, 41, lost all pay, was reduced in rank from sergeant to private and then imprisoned at Fort Lewis, Wash. after being convicted on the charge of missing movement in July 2005. He's hired an attorney to appeal that conviction and obtain an honorable discharge.

"I didn't do anything dishonorable so I don't think I deserve that," said Benderman, a plain-spoken Southerner who said he first joined the Army out of a sense of purpose and family tradition.

The Army mechanic told his commander he was seeking a discharge as a conscientious objector 10 days before his 3rd Infantry Division unit was to deploy in January 2005.

He continues to maintain his commander released him to go home and work on his objector application the weekend his unit deployed. He reported for duty the following Monday.

The 10-year Army veteran said he became opposed to war after witnessing it first-hand during a deployment to Iraq in 2003. There, he said he saw a young girl suffer severe burns and dogs feeding at mass graves.

"I did what I did because I had to make sure it was the best thing for me to do," Benderman said. "I weighed all the factors, and one of those factors was whether I was abandoning the guys going over there."

The Army contends that's exactly what he did by timing his request so that commanders had little time to respond.

"He abandoned his unit when they needed him the most," said Army prosecutor Capt. Jonathan DeJesus during last year's trial.

Benderman has tried to explain his decision to civilians who question why a volunteer soldier would refuse to do the primary thing the Army trains to do: Fight war.

"I always ask those people if they've ever changed jobs or gotten a divorce," he said. "Those are everyday occurrences, but let's take that up to the level of war.

"Watch a dog run through a field with a human arm in his mouth. Stand at the side of a grave site and smell the stinking, rotting bodies and then talk to me about changing your mind."

Benderman was released early from Fort Lewis for good behavior on Aug. 18. He returned home to his wife Monica and step-son in Hinesville, where he's working to start a foundation to help soldiers navigate Army regulations and make connections in the civilian world.

He said soldiers should follow the proper channels for discharge rather than go absent without leave.

"I could have gone AWOL a long time ago, but that's wrong," he said. "You need to follow regulations. How can a person make a statement against something they feel is wrong by doing something wrong themselves?"

The Bendermans continue to oppose the war, and maintain loose affiliations with various anti-war groups through speaking engagements.

But Benderman said he refuses to be anyone's "poster boy." And he's critical of anti-war protestors like Cindy Sheehan, who he says is being "dragged along" by partisan political groups.

The way to stop the war, he said, is through a more engaged citizenry.

"When citizens don't exercise their authority, that's when things get out of control," he said.

"If the majority of Americans think this war is wrong, they should petition their representatives to do what they want them to do.

"These protestors bring out the Sixties love beads and signs and lay on the floor at the Capitol. But what does that really do?

"On the other side, you have people who pay $2 for a yellow ribbon magnet on their car and they think they've done their part.

"When are we going to stop the image building and do something of substance?"